Washington —Washington police used tear gas on hundreds of protesters and arrested more than a dozen who tried to stop a van they believed was carrying delegates to meetings of the International Monetary Fund, as a second day of anti-IMF demonstrations turned violent.
The skirmish broke out at 19th and K Streets, near IMF headquarters, as riot police used batons to disperse a crowd, including those from anarchist groups. Police then made the arrests, with Police Chief Charles Ramsey himself pushing a protester to the ground and handcuffing him.
"We have not gone into this with the intent to use tear gas, we have gone into this with the intent to allow for peaceful protest," Mayor Anthony Williams said. "The amount of force we use is really up to the protesters."
Still, meetings among the world's top finance officials at the IMF and World Bank started on time as thunderstorms kept away most of the protesters who jammed the downtown yesterday.
"All the delegates are here," said Caroline Anstey, the chief spokeswoman of the World Bank, whose annual spring gathering with the IMF has become a magnet for protesters, from human rights groups to animal rights activists, bent on shutting the meetings down.
Traffic was lighter than on a usual Monday, though commuters who did drive downtown faced gridlock. Several Metro subway stations were once again closed.
In contrast to yesterday's mostly peaceful demonstration by an estimated 10,000 people, today's protesters are "more your hardcore types," Ramsey said. "It's nothing we can't handle."
Inside the IMF building, an advisory group of finance ministers to the fund and World Bank began discussing topics like the AIDS epidemic in the developing world and debt relief for poor countries.
Rain and thunderstorms are expected all day today, according to the National Weather Service.
By 8 a.m. yesterday, thousands of protesters had already formed "human chains" around the IMF to prevent people from entering.
Police claimed success because they kept the joint meetings of the World Bank and IMF from being shut down, and officials had warned downtown workers and drivers to avoid the area today.
U.S. government offices were closed to all but emergency staff in an area that includes the Commerce and Treasury departments and the White House, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
Protest organizers last night accused police of trying to intimidate them during yesterday's demonstrations.
"Despite the scare tactics, the threats, the harassment, the raid of our workshop space, we will not be silenced," said Nadine Bloch of the Mobilization for Global Justice, the umbrella organization that represents some 400 groups.
Bloch said that although the IMF and World Bank meetings have proceeded as planned, organizers achieved their goal by raising public awareness of the IMF and World Bank.
Finance ministers and central bankers from across the globe have been bused to their meetings through barricades set up by police and demonstrators around the two institutions' downtown headquarters.
While the protesters grabbed more media attention than did the IMF or World Bank delegates, they had little success influencing their actions, an IMF official said.
"Protesters did not affect the agenda," said U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, head of the IMF's chief advisory committee. "Our way to attack the inequities in the global economy is not to walk away from globalization."
Pedro Solbes, European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner, called the demonstrations "an important message on the part of the population." He said, however, their call for increased emphasis on the poor "is not a contradictory message to what we are trying to do here."